


Level 5 Stamina

by Croik



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, The Upgrade Chair, Torture, Whump, brain play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 07:38:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2613707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Croik/pseuds/Croik
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just when Sebastian thought it was safe to upgrade, Ruvik makes some adjustments to the chair to enhance him in ways he never thought possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Level 5 Stamina

**Author's Note:**

> So I set out to write some kinky non-con, but it evolved into something much weirder. I sincerely hope you never look at upgrading the same way again! C&C welcome and appreciated.

Sebastian waited for a few minutes, and when there was still no sign of Tatiana, he rang the bell again just to be an asshole.

She hadn't appeared since the lobby had been trashed, but Sebastian found himself looking for her whenever he was dragged back. It was probably a waste of time. He wasn't sure she was even real, and her company wasn't much of a comfort anyway, but at least her disinterested remarks kept him from being completely alone.

"Hey, nurse?" He rang the bell again, and it echoed for longer than he thought it should, but he received no answer. "Guess you're not home," he muttered, stepping back from the desk. "Or maybe you are. Lucky for you." He felt a ridiculous pang of betrayal, and he distracted himself by moving down the hall to next chamber.

The chair, at least, was still there, looking particularly unwelcoming now that the room surrounding it was peeling and crumbling. With its rusty joints and _Saw_ -esque headpiece Sebastian had to remind himself every time that he had already talked himself into sitting down a half dozen times and escaped unscathed. In fact, other than a slight headache he almost always left the chair feeling stronger and more clear-headed than going in. He couldn't explain it, and he was wishing he had been more forceful in putting his questions to Tatiana, but if there was one thing he needed more than ever it was to feel stronger. He hadn't had anything to eat in what felt like days and had been running on four hours of sleep even before stepping foot inside Beacon. If having the energy to keep moving forward meant taking a ride in the dentist chair from hell, it was worth it.

"You've done it plenty of times before," Sebastian reasoned as he laid his crossbow on the nearby desk, along with the largest of his guns. "Just a few jolts and you'll be on your way." He glanced over the various dials and levels and frowned. "Assuming it'll even work without _her_ here. Guess there's only one way to find out."

Sebastian sat down. Even knowing what was coming he flinched when the cuffs slapped over his wrists and ankles, and again with the headpiece creaked down into place. Clamps bit into his temples, and the stabilizing plate that snapped across the bridge of his nose left his vision almost completely blocked. Everything cinched in tight, but it wasn't any worse than he was used to. He almost was able to relax. The electric hum of the machines starting up ruined that, and he braced himself for the first shock.

 _It's just a few jolts,_ he told himself, taking a deep breath. _Roughly ten seconds apart. And you'll be ready for another round of...whatever that sick bastard has lined up for you next._

The hit came, like a flash of light behind his closed eyelids that spread throughout his whole body. It only stung for a moment but he jerked all the same, the restraints digging into his wrists. Ridiculous, that after everything he'd suffered a little shock could make his heart pound, like a jump scare in a bad horror flick. But it worked; as the pain receded it took with it some of the weight that had settled between his shoulder blades. His fingers wiggled with newfound strength and itched for a trigger.

But that wasn't all. Beneath the usual adrenaline buzz there was something else: a warm, tickling sensation that trickled down from the base of his skull. For the first time in what felt like weeks he was overwhelmed with the impossible realization that he was safe. Even the clamps around his head didn't seem as constricting, and a soothing warmth filled his chest. It felt...good. Finally, something felt _good_.

Sebastian let his breath out. He kept his eyes closed as he counted the seconds, down from ten, until the next jolt. He tried not to tense up. He let his head fall back, let the chair support him. He told himself he was drinking in the energy and it would make him strong. It did, and as it passed, calming elation followed. This time it flowed deeper, into his stomach and abdomen, reminding him of post-Thanksgiving dinner bliss. He even licked his lips.

"Hey," he called, tilting his head back, but he could still see only edges of the room in front of him. "Nurse? Did you do something to this thing? Feels a little different this time."

Sebastian didn't get an answer, not that he was expecting to. He squirmed into a slightly more comfortable position. _This thing never has more than a few shots in it at a time. Might as well enjoy it while I'm here._ His toes curled with anticipation.

The third time was the fucking charm. The jolt from the headpiece skittered across his scalp and then dug inside, firing synapses, flooding his entire body with a rush of pleasure. It danced up and down his nervous system in tingling waves that left him stunned and breathless. He hadn't felt anything like it in ages. Then it was gone, and he let out a nervous, incredulous laugh.

"What the fuck..." Sebastian tried again to look around, fearful that he'd fallen victim to some bizarre trap, but he still couldn't see anything. "Seriously, Tatiana," he said. "It _is_ Tatiana, isn't it? What is going on?"

Again, sooner and stronger than before, and Sebastian shuddered in the grip of it. "Fuck," he gasped out, and his heart began to pound, rushing blood down into his groin. It felt _good_ and his body was starting to respond in potentially embarrassing ways. "Tatiana! Not that I don't appreciate...whatever this is, I'm not sure..." The machinery hummed as it built up to the next jolt. Sebastian gulped. "Not sure this is...is the time for--"

It didn't even hurt anymore. Sebastian only felt the impact, tightening his body against the chair, and the heat, stretching out to every part of him. A thin moan squeezed through his clenched teeth as his cock swelled against the confines of his slacks. _When was the last time?_ he thought, even as he tried to remain rational and view what was happening to him as the assault it was. _God, it feels like years._ His traitorous flesh seemed to agree, rising to the occasion much more eagerly than should have been possible, considering he was trapped in a psychopath's fever dream. But when the chair rocked him again--only five seconds after the last one--the thought that it might not do so again left him straining with desperation.

"Fuck it," Sebastian hissed, pulling against the arm restraints. He didn't care where it was coming from or who was responsible; all he wanted was one hand free. "All right, come on. Give me what you got." He closed his eyes again and waited, his small hairs standing on end. "I deserve it."

The chair creaked, and Sebastian felt a moment of fearful regret when something in the headpiece jabbed him in the side of his head--something thin, but incredibly sturdy. He had a fleeting memory of the dissection pieces in the mansion, needles in their gray matter, and might have fallen into panic, but then the pleasure was back, deeper and more satisfying than ever. His eyes rolled back behind his eyelids and he groaned aloud as he was gripped on all sides by ghostly sensations: hands he knew weren't there skated down his chest and sides, urging his thighs apart. Each touch was familiar, as if the memories of every time he'd made love were rising up in unison. They swirled together into a humming sensation, saturating him, building pressure, until he was writhing in the chair, desperate for some kind of friction for his aching erection.

" _Fuck_ , can't you just..." Sebastian growled, but there wasn't any point in fighting. He gripped the armrests through another jolt and trembled on the verge of bursting. He never would have thought it possible to feel arousal so thoroughly, to be brought to the edge so swiftly and without the benefit of another body or even his own damn hand helping him along. He should have been praying for it to stop, but instead he licked his lips. "One...two...three..."

The chair vibrated as it delivered the final blow, torturing Sebastian with euphoria that persisted second after endless, exhilarating second, until he was moaning and quivering helplessly beneath the weight of it. His every muscle wound tight with anticipation of the inevitable collapse, and when it came, his climax left him ravaged and half numb. His hips pumped involuntarily and his breath shuddered in and out of his lungs. It was downright _astounding_.

"Holy...Jesus..." Sebastian slumped forward in the chair, panting and dumbfounded. The room was spinning, and opening his eyes didn't help, so he closed them again and focused on the ligatures around his ankles as a source of stability. He tried to think of the last time he'd experienced an orgasm so profound, and couldn't remember the last time he'd gotten off _at all_. Had it been as long as before the fire? He didn't think so but couldn't be sure, and he forced the musings aside.

 _It doesn't really matter, because I sure as fuck needed it now._ When he had some strength in his arms he pushed against his restraints so he could sit upright again. "Good God," he mumbled. He licked the sweat off his upper lip, letting each shallow breath carry him back into his proper senses. "That was..." He tried to shake his head, but his crown prevented him. "Fuck, though," he said to the darkness. "If only you'd warned me, I would have unzipped my God damned pants."

Something touched Sebastian's knee. He flinched back, but the chair gave him nowhere to retreat to. Two sets of fingernails skated up his thighs and he could do nothing to stop them. "Tatiana?" he said, cheeks flush with embarrassment. Letting the chair have its way with him had seemed like a much better idea at the time, before a beautiful woman was inching closer to the damp spot in his pants. He felt the heat of a body lean over him and then his belt was being unbuckled, his fly unzipped. "It's a little late for--"

Sebastian stopped talking when a wide, masculine hand dipped down the front of his trousers. It was almost unbearably hot, and it didn't feel quite like skin; he shoved himself back against the chair as far as he could. The invading fingers were careful as they eased Sebastian's wilting dick out of his boxers, but he was still prickling with oversensitivity, and every touch made him twitch and hiss.

"Who the... Joseph?" Sebastian's heart skipped and his mind raced, throwing everything into confusion. He didn't know why, but the thought of his partner of all people discovering him in such a state tied his stomach into knots. "Joseph, is that you?"

The machines began to hum. "Wait," said Sebastian. "Wait, shut that off." He tried again to turn his head to the side with no luck. "That's enough--Joseph--turn it off!"

The headpiece flared, but instead of tingles and sparks, it shot into his skull a burst of pain like a strike from a bat. Sebastian was caught completely off guard. He jerked, too surprised to even curse. Someone was still close by. "Who's there?" he demanded, cringing as he realized how vulnerable he was. "Who the fuck is that? Get this thing off me!"

"Wait," said a man's voice, low and gravely, from somewhere directly in front of him. "Wait for it."

Sebastian went cold all over. "...Ruvik?"

"Five," he said. "Four...three..."

Sebastian yanked against his restraints. "Stop!" He didn't really believe that Ruvik would listen, but the sound of the electrodes readying made him desperate to try. "Just wait--just stop--"

"...two...one..."

The pain flashed through him as easily as the arousal had--down to his fingertips and toes in shockwaves. He knew pain. He'd been burned and shot, had been in fights and car accidents, had taken a fucking chainsaw to his leg, but he didn't know it was possible to feel it in every part of his body at once, hot and fierce like an explosion under his skin. Thankfully it lasted less than a second, but even when it was over he couldn't be relieved, because he knew it would only get worse.

"Shit!" Sebastian ground his teeth and breathed through them. _Stay calm,_ he told himself. _He might give you an opening...no, fuck it. You're fucking screwed._ When he tilted his head back he could see just a whisper of white fabric by his knee, tattered and singed at the edges. _You've got ten seconds to talk to him. Make it count, God damn it._ He took a breath. "Ruvik. I didn't think you could get in here."

"I couldn't," Ruvik replied with unexpected honesty. "But then you let me in. I suspect that's why Ms. Guiterrez has at last abandoned you."

The machines were revving again. "What did you do to her?" Sebastian demanded. "Make her into one of those things? She wasn't any threat to you!"

"I would correct you if it mattered now. Two...one..."

"Wait--" The third time was the charm, all right. Sebastian cried out as agony rippled through his muscles; he felt as if his bones were spinning, twisting the sinews around them until he thought they might snap. " _Fuck_! Fuck...fuck..." He shook helplessly and struggled to even breathe until it finally wound down. "Fuck..." As his senses returned he couldn't help but fight uselessly against his arm cuffs. "What the fuck do you _want_?"

"The world exists only as a product of human perception," said Ruvik, from behind him that time. Sebastian could hear him making small adjustments to the machine; apprehension made him ill. "Everything you hold to be empirical truth is subject to your experience of it, and by extension, your brain's ability to process its stimulation into truth that is not only tangible, but meaningful. Thus the human brain is the measure by which all of reality is determined."

Sebastian's eyelids fluttered. "What?"

"Ah, you're asking questions. Very good."

The chair hummed beneath Sebastian, and he braced himself, but what followed was a sweet intrusion: a gentle, sensual burn igniting deep in the pit of his stomach. He didn't trust it. For the full second that it lasted he remained on edge, waiting for Ruvik to revert to more obvious torments, but then it simply ebbed away. "What...what are you talking about?"

"I'll provide you with a crude example," Ruvik said. He gave a tug on Sebastian's headpiece that had him gripping the armrests preemptively, but again, no pain followed. "What if I were to say the sky is...light blue. But when you looked up, what you saw was cerulean. Which of us would be correct?"

"Cer-what? Isn't that just blue?"

Ruvik made a quiet, displeased noise, and Sebastian flinched as something in the headpiece creaked very close to his left ear. "The particulars of this example are not important, and I think you know that."

 _Here it comes_. Sebastian clenched his jaw, waiting for his punishment, but when the machines fired it was again that subtle, rumbling fire that swirled down into his belly. For brief moments he was utterly fulfilled, every memory of pain a distant fairy tale. "I don't," he stuttered, his senses muddled. "I don't get...wait. Wait." The euphoria began to fade, and he arched his back involuntarily, missing it already. "Okay, wait. I get it. We're both right. Is that what you're getting at?" He forced himself to breathe steadily, in and out. "You're saying reality is subjective." _Which is bullshit, but fuck, keep him talking. Keep him happy, at least until...something. Jesus, how am I going to get out of this?_

"That is what I'm saying," Ruvik affirmed, his bare feet padding quietly across the tiled floor. He was in front of Sebastian again, his knees leaning against Sebastian's knees, his hands adding weight to the braces already trapping Sebastian's wrists. "You see, Sebastian, what I have been seeking is nothing less than a way to change the world. _My_ world. You may be able to imagine why I was not pleased with my world, and the ways in which it...stimulated me."

"So you..." Sebastian hesitated, expecting a rise of electricity at any moment, but if he was able to impress Ruvik, even just a little... "Is that why you...you experiment on the brain?" he said, trying to focus and function the way a detective ought. "If you change the way your brain sees the world...the world itself might as well be changing. Right? Is that it?"

Ruvik was quiet for a moment, but his silence was soon filled yet again by the machines. Sebastian squirmed--if only Ruvik would answer, at least he would have some idea of what to expect. As the electrodes reached capacity, he at last said, "Yes, that's exactly right."

Sebastian swelled with the meager accomplishment, and was rewarded. His skin tingled with pleasure and he even caught himself grinning as he relaxed into his confinement. _No, this is wrong._ As amazing as it felt, shame and disgust lurked beneath it like a bad aftertaste. _He's just toying with you. Are you Pavlov's dog now? Stop falling for this._

The tingle left, and just as Sebastian was readying a breath to speak, another hit crashed unexpectedly into him. The flickering heat that had so recently been a welcome comfort blazed into anguish, and Sebastian's voice left him in broken shouts. _Everything_ hurt. He was in a monster's jaws.

"You sick fuck!" Sebastian hollered once anger was again an option. "You said I got it right!"

"There's just one problem," Ruvik said, monotone, as if he hadn't heard Sebastian's outburst. Then he was crawling into Sebastian's lap, spreading his knees on either side of Sebastian's thighs. "And that is, that the brain itself, despite its beautiful complexity, is merely an organ." His knees hitting the chair's back prevented him from getting too close, but Sebastian recoiled as best he could nonetheless, painfully aware that his dick was still laying awkwardly outside his pants.

"It can be manipulated," Ruvik went on. When Sebastian glanced down, he could see Ruvik's ruddy, scarred hands, and he gagged when he remembered them creeping into his boxers. "It can be stimulated artificially. Its pathways and synapses can become crossed, blurred, corrupted. It can be _controlled_. And whoever controls the brain, controls _reality_."

"You're out of your mind," Sebastian spat. "That's not how shit works. Get this thing off me!" He tried to buck Ruvik off but he had no leverage. "Get the _fuck off me_!"

"To offer another crude example, let's talk about what you're experiencing now."

Sebastian held his breath. The chair was warm and humming beneath him, ready for another round of torment, and he waited, suspense drawn out to the point of lunacy, for it to hit. But nothing happened, and then Ruvik was talking again. "Pleasure. Pain. Many people would say they operate at opposite ends of the spectrum. But the truth is, they are very similar."

Sebastian gulped, but he didn't dare interrupt with electricity coursing through the wires above him. He managed to remain perfectly still as Ruvik tugged his necktie loose. "Think of the way your body has been responding to them," he said, his voice a taunting growl. "Your heart rate, rising. Your breathing, heavy. Tensing, sweating." He drew his thumb along the line of Sebastian's jaw, and Sebastian had to fight himself to keep from jerking away. "Adrenaline is coursing through your system. But that is true in many different states of arousal. In fact..." Ruvik walked his fingers up the side of Sebastian's head, over the crown piece. "Any number of fascinating sensations can arise from stimulating the same few areas of the brain."

He flicked something on the headpiece. Sebastian heard the metal _ding_ against his fingernail, felt the vibration dive down through his skull. What followed he nearly couldn't describe. His heart skipped and his breath hitched, just as Ruvik said, but it wasn't exactly pain or pleasure that made his eyelids flutter, his toes clench. It was sharp and aching at once, irritating and satisfying, like stretching a sore muscle. His brain tangled itself into spaghetti trying to make sense of it.

"Don't," he said without thinking. "Don't do that again."

"I know you don't mean that."

And then it was everywhere, courtesy of the chair. Sebastian groaned, caught between the warring sensations. Primal need spiraled up and down his quaking limbs; he wanted to run, to capture, to devour, to _be_ devoured, to--

"Don't lie to me, Sebastian," said Ruvik. "I know you want to feel what comes next."

Sebastian wound down, but the echoes remained under his skin. "No, no, I..." His train of thought drifted away and he couldn't remember what he meant to say, let alone if it would have mattered. "Ruvik. Just...wait."

"Because that's the other thing these seemingly opposite sensations have in common," Ruvik carried on regardless, shifting forward against Sebastian's thighs. " _Anticipation_. Always, you seek what comes next. Arousal is nothing more than a means to an end, for simple minds like yours. You spend every moment of it waiting for that last instant of climax."

Sebastian could see hints of movement from Ruvik's hands. Bile burned in his throat when he imagined Ruvik providing another "crude example" and he bit his lip, fearful that any protests would be taken as an invitation. The extent of his hopelessness was finally taking fearful shape; Ruvik wasn't killing him. Sebastian had suspected that Jimenez was wrong--his death, though agreeable, was not Ruvik's sole goal after all. Maybe he had been biding his time all along, until Sebastian was worn thin, his walls crumbling, and he could slip between the folds of his brain with all the precision and malicious intent of a lobotomy pic. After all his suffering Sebastian had landed at the heart of the spider's web, his brain and body helplessly beyond his control. And he remembered, with unholy clarity, Joseph raising the gun to his temple.

"Ruvik..." He didn't need any help from the devil device at his back to feel panic gnawing at his ribs. "Ruvik, wait."

"Pain can provide a very similar experience," said Ruvik, pushing at Sebastian's shoulders so that they were flush to the chair back. "When caught in its throes, all you can do is beg to be released from it. All that matters is that it ends."

"Ruvik--"

"Two...one..."

 _I'm losing my mind,_ Sebastian thought as he was wracked again, writhing between Ruvik's hands and the metal at his back. Curses ground past his clenched jaws. It was getting harder to stay coherent and he didn't think there would be anything left of him by the time Ruvik was finished.

"But what if I promised you both could be unending?" said Ruvik, and Sebastian's heart all but stopped. "What if I gave you pain and joy in equal measure, over and over, to the last limits of your body? Perhaps then, you would finally be able to focus on each without such impatience. You could be free from anticipation and simply...partake." His tongue made soft, wet sounds against his lips. "And take. And take..."

"No." Real terror gripped Sebastian then but all he could do was cower. "No, no, stop--"

"What if I could share with you _my_ world? A world where all the horror and ecstasy of a lifetime can be refined into one piercing sensation." Ruvik's hands fisted against Sebastian's vest. "You accused me once of trying to make you feel sorry for me. But _this_ is all I have ever wanted you to feel, Sebastian. And now you will."

Sebastian opened his mouth, but he didn't have time for words. Lightning struck him to his core. His body snapped like a trap and he was overwhelmed with stimuli too varied and intense to identify. He tried to breathe, telling himself that Ruvik was lying and it would end-- _Good God it has to end_ \--but over and over the heat tumbled through him, from his head, to his throbbing heart, to his squirming hips, to his fingers and toes. Anguish and desire chased each other in frenzied circles through his bones and set fire to his nerves. He had never felt so devastatingly alive, and as it persisted, everything blurred and sharpened at once. His racing pulse and heaving lungs forgot the hand behind the whip that spurred them on; there was only the noise, growing steadily louder behind his eyes. Flashes of his life coalesced into a blinding light that filled his every cell to overflowing.

The noise became his entire being; it became _need_ , and it ravaged him. He _needed_ and he didn't know what. There were stars burning inside him and he couldn't get them out. It wouldn't stop. He couldn't act. He could only take, and take, crying out, and Ruvik was close to his ear, whispering, "Yes, Sebastian. Partake."

Something gave way. Sebastian's hands had long since gone numb and it took him a long time to realize that the left had broken free, the restraints mangled around his bloody wrist. Like an animal he pawed at Ruvik's back, disoriented, clutching him as if he were salvation even though he should have known better. Ruvik didn't react. He waited patiently as Sebastian unraveled beneath him, until tears were strangled from his eyes and his every breath was a sob. He waited until all human reason crumpled away, and the world disappeared bit by bit like snuffed out candles.

"Sebastian."

He couldn't answer. The noise was gone--he may as well have been dead. He might have _been_ dead. He ached with unfulfilled need and he couldn't breathe.

"Sebastian." Ruvik touched his cheeks. "Are you crying?"

"Ngh..." Sebastian tugged fitfully at Ruvik's jacket, barely in control of his only free limb. "Fuck...you."

Ruvik wiped the tears away with his thumbs. "The last time I cried, my father was with me," he murmured. "And he said, 'The doctor tells me you don't have any feeling in that part of your body. So why are you crying?' I tried to explain to him that certain bodily reactions are involuntary, but it didn't matter." He slipped his thumbs under the stabilizing plate to rub against Sebastian's closed eyelids. "So when I finally killed him, I took his eyes to help him understand. Another crude example, if you will."

Sebastian cringed back, trembling as Ruvik traced the shape of his eyes with his fingernails. But then Ruvik sighed; his breath hissed past Sebastian's chin. "But you don't have to worry about that," he said. "You and I both understand involuntary bodily reactions." He withdrew his hands.

 _He's still fucking with you._ Sebastian growled, his fear giving way to anger. Though still unsteady and mostly blind he felt his way up Ruvik's chest and latched onto his throat. "I'll kill you," he rasped, digging his nails into Ruvik's scars. "I'll fucking kill you!"

But Ruvik only leaned into his hand. "Then you'll have to squeeze harder."

Sebastian tried. He forced as much strength into his arm as he could, but his hand wouldn't stop shaking, and nothing he did had any effect on his enemy. When his frustration collapsed it took with it the last of his resistance, and he sagged, his hand falling away. "Stop," he whispered. "Just stop." The chair began to hum again; he whimpered and hated himself for it. " _Please_ , stop. I can't..." He burned with dread for what was to come. "I can't anymore. I can't...please _stop_."

"No. Try asking for something else."

Sebastian groaned; it was difficult enough remaining conscious, let alone solving another riddle. He pawed at Ruvik's jacket. "You...please, I..." He swallowed. _Fuck it._ "I could really use a drink."

Ruvik snorted quietly in amusement. "Simple enough."

Sebastian blinked, but suspicion prevented him from even hoping Ruvik meant it. Then glass pressed against his bottom lip. A whiff of alcohol tickled his nostrils, and if he'd had any shame left he would have been embarrassed by the eager whine that left him. Ruvik tipped the bottle, and for one terrifying instant Sebastian was sure poison would pour down his throat, but his nose wasn't wrong: it was wine, red wine, strong and earthy like the kind Myra used to get for their anniversary. He gulped it down, relishing the burn, and found the strength to take the bottle for himself.

"Easy," Ruvik murmured. When Sebastian tried to tip the bottle higher he kept one hand on the bottom, forcing him to drink slowly. "Easy."

Sebastian sucked down every drop, and even after Ruvik took the empty bottle away he licked his lips in search of one last taste. It was a hollow comfort but he savored it as best he could. "Thank you," he said before he could stop himself.

Ruvik pushed up on his knees, leaning one hand against Sebastian's shoulder as he reached for the chair's headpiece. "You're welcome," he said.

He yanked something free of the device, and for a few seconds Sebastian saw only white before what vision he had returned. "Hold this," he said, pressing a metal cylinder into Sebastian's hand. As he continued to fiddle with the device Sebastian moved his hand into his line of sight. He was holding a metal handle with a long, pic-like needle on one end, a cable attached to the other. When he gave it a shake, it felt like it was attached to the collection of wires powering the rest of the chair.

"What..." Sebastian hesitated, knowing he wouldn't like the answer. "What's this for?"

Ruvik settled again, and fabric rustled. He took Sebastian by the wrist and guided his hand up, out of view, manipulating it so that the needle was pointed inward. The metal scraped against something hard with a hair-raising squeal, and Ruvik quickly repositioned it. "There," he said once satisfied. "Push."

Sebastian clenched his fist around the cylinder. "What am I sticking this in?"

Ruvik closed his hand over Sebastian's hand and pushed for him. The needle met only slight resistance with a quiet, wet sound. Sebastian held his breath, only to realize a moment later that Ruvik was holding his, too. Then the needle was fully inserted, and the cylinder clicked into place.

Ruvik let his breath out slowly and shifted his weight in Sebastian's lap. He seemed distracted, and when his hand fell away, Sebastian took the opportunity to feel out what he had done. The cylinder had snapped into some kind of smooth, curved casing, like Plexiglas. Running his fingertips over it, Sebastian discovered a few more ports, and lower, a rough, leathery edge. The plate was stitched into place. He followed it back, and it dawned on him that it was moving slightly beneath his hands, just before he touched a human ear.

 _It's in his fucking head._ Sebastian's heart pounded up into his throat as he felt out Ruvik's ear, the crook of his jaw, the mangled stretch of his neck. _You just stabbed that thing in his fucking brain._ His breath stuttered in his throat. "What are you?" He gripped Ruvik's shoulder and thought he might faint. "What the fuck is _wrong_ with you?"

The chair creaked in only brief warning before the hit came. It lasted only a second, as blazing and incomprehensible as ever, and Sebastian whimpered as his already exhausted body struggled to endure. Ruvik's shoulder was his only point of stability and he clung to it so tightly that he felt when Ruvik shivered with him. Ruvik hummed quietly as he stretched his back and parted his knees. It was in him, too, and he was enjoying it. Sebastian shuddered with revulsion.

"This is it," said Ruvik, his voice thick with rapture. "The one outcome of my research I can claim no ownership of. This is the _gift_ those traitors bestowed on me." He covered Sebastian's hand with one of his and braced the other to Sebastian's chest. "All human sensation, all human memory, distilled into a singular, unending noise. You can hear it, can't you?" His breath quickened. "You can feel it pierce right through you."

They were both jolted again, and Sebastian felt it all right. Memories of his life crackled across his vision like film spots, and his body drew in tight, blazing with light and energy he didn't know how to use. He _needed_ , with every fiber of his being, and Ruvik was right there with him, sighing and hissing. They twisted with and against each other almost intimately.

"I can't," Sebastian panted. "I can't..."

Ruvik laughed cruelly. "You will."

The third time threatened to rattle Sebastian apart, and it didn't stop. After a full second of the sweet torture passed without breaking stride, he knew he was fucked. It was too much--too much pain gnawing his bones into splinters, too much fear and disgust rotting his innards. Too much endless, unfocused desire boiling inside him. He needed and wanted and could never have enough. The noise was pulsing in his every cell and he was convinced that at any moment he would scatter into blood and dust.

But then Ruvik shifted forward. He was shaking, too, gasping for air between deep groans. Sebastian hooked his arm around the small of Ruvik's back and pulled, drawing them as tightly together as their bodies allowed. The rough friction against his cock startled him; finally, he felt something real, something he knew was tangible and not a result of a devil's claws in his brain. All at once, the noise scattering through him found focus in lust. The agony and uncertainty became fuel to a sudden and all-encompassing hunger that sent his blood pounding through his veins.

Because he understood sex. He had tasted it, worshiped it. His cock growing hard against a churning body made so much more sense than the tangle of instincts Ruvik was subjecting him to, and he turned all his attention to it. He yanked at Ruvik's waist, bucked with his hips, trying to encourage the man into some kind of reciprocation that would take his mind away from chaos, but Ruvik only continued to murmur and quake, uninterested. Desperate, Sebastian did the only thing he could think of: he grabbed Ruvik by the back of the neck and dragged him into a kiss.

Ruvik jumped with a gasp. The chair squealed, and the headpiece lurched back, taking Sebastian with it. He yelped as his neck was wrenched over the back of the chair and his spine arched off the cushions. The pain threatened to disrupt all his concentration; it was so easy for the noise to become agony alone, and for several torturous seconds it was, ripping him apart from all sides. He couldn't stop from screaming.

Then Ruvik's mouth was there, silencing him. His hands were on Sebastian's face, firm and possessive, and he was leaning hard into Sebastian's body. He was clumsy at first, but Sebastian didn't care; he grabbed Ruvik around the waist again and tugged. Finally, Ruvik got the message. He let Sebastian lead him, rocking into his hips with every pull of his arm. The ridges from his scars rubbed tantalizingly against Sebastian's eager cock, and Sebastian moaned with abandon.

 _It's just sex,_ he told himself frantically. He thrust against Ruvik's hips and sucked his lips to bruising. _You want this. He's giving you what you want, that's all. It means nothing._ When denial and shame threatened to turn his stomach, he focused on the noise, with all its vibrant perfection, and let it pierce through him. His every instinct honed on the man hissing against his mouth. He let Ruvik become his entire world.

Ruvik, beast that he was, obliged him. He moaned, and squeezed, and shook, wrapped up in Sebastian's arm and around his neck. When his voice rose, ragged and needy, the machines intensified. His breath came in short, panicked gasps and his skin burned Sebastian wherever they touched. Sebastian himself was no better. He couldn't breathe, couldn't stop, and as much as he fought for control and direction, in the end all he could do was take, over and over. Even when he came, painting Ruvik's bare stomach with pulse after pulse of relief, the machine wouldn't stop tormenting him. It spread his pleasure throughout his entire body, setting off red-hot orgasms in his stomach, his bleeding wrist, his clenching toes, his untrustworthy brain. Every beat of his heart spurred bliss so potent it was deadly into every twisted capillary, until Ruvik was crying out, too, their voices crashing between their mouths.

The machines stopped. The clamps released, the ligatures recoiled, and the headpiece came off with a squeal of rusty metal. Sebastian collapsed. He was too afraid to be elated; he sagged against Ruvik's chest and had to reteach himself how to breathe. Ruvik ignored him at first as he, too, fought to regain clarity and function. Then he wrapped Sebastian up, cradling his throbbing head, lightly scratching the areas of his scalp where the chair had bitten down hardest.

"Shhh," Ruvik soothed, though his voice was cold. "Poor Sebastian. Don't worry." He leaned in to Sebastian's ear. "It gets easier once you're used to it."

A sob caught in Sebastian's throat. He couldn't stop shaking as the reality of all that had happened, could still happen, crept in at once. He wanted to push Ruvik away, to wrap his fingers around his neck again and squeeze with all his might, but he could barely lift his arms. In the end all he managed was to claw helplessly at Ruvik's waist as he wept into his chest. He felt broken. His entire world had imploded and only Ruvik was there among the ashes.

"Ru..." Sebastian squeezed his eyes tightly shut. "Ruvik..."

"There's a bed just down the hall," said Ruvik, stroking Sebastian's hair. "A warm mattress, a soft pillow. I'll carry you there, and you can sleep, uninterrupted, until this is over."

 _Sleep._ Sebastian could have almost come again at the notion. _Sleep, yes, God, give me sleep._ _Make this all a bad dream._ He burrowed into Ruvik thankfully, but then he felt the man shift, and a quiet squelch followed by metal hitting the floor turned his blood cold again. "What..." His voice cracked; he licked his lips and tried again. "What about Joseph? Kidman? Leslie?"

Ruvik snorted. "What about them?"

"Where are they?" Bit by bit Sebastian's world was returning, bringing with it unwanted reminders. He thought again of being discovered by his partner and wanted to vomit. "Why don't you just let us all go?"

"My only deal is with you," said Ruvik. "It's too late for the others, anyway. Don't worry about them anymore, Sebastian."

Sebastian grimaced. "Are they dead?"

"No. And if they do not wish to be, all they need do is stay out of my way."

Moving put pins and needles in Sebastian's limbs, but he made the attempt anyway. He pushed against Ruvik's chest and sat back, though he still had to depend on the chair's support to remain upright. He took a long look at his host: his skin, bone white and heavily scarred; his eyes, sharp and pale like a predator's; the revolting display of his brain in a bed of crude stitches. He was barely human. "What are you really after?" Sebastian had to ask. "How is this going to end?"

Ruvik regarded him stoically. "I already told you," he said. "I'm trying to change the world."

Sebastian felt a chill. He believed him. He could hear the noise bouncing back and forth between his eardrums, and imagined it singing out of a hundred skulls. He thought of poor Joseph, crumpled in a church pew beneath its weight--a perfect snapshot of a thousand victims to follow. He pictured, with all the vivid horror his imagination could conjure, the kind of world Ruvik would create if only he had the means.

Sebastian licked his lips, and he reached out, drawing his fingertips down the burn scars that blanketed Ruvik's chest. Ruvik twitched but didn't try to stop or question him. His eyes were unrelenting, and Sebastian almost lost his nerves to panic again. It took one more deep breath to steel his conviction.

"You know," he said, "to be honest, there was a moment when I almost did feel sorry for you. Back in the barn." Ruvik's stomach tightened beneath his hand, and Sebastian's did the same. "I've spent...so many nights, trying to imagine what something like that would have felt like." He let his hand fall, and he met Ruvik's steady gaze with defiance. "You should have never survived."

Ruvik's eyes narrowed. "There's no deal," said Sebastian. "There's nothing you can say or do that'll keep me from trying to stop you. Your world is going to die with you."

Ruvik remained quiet and still for several moments; Sebastian waited him out, glare for glare, determined not to falter. Then, Ruvik looked away. His mouth twisted with bitter disappointment. "So be it."

He grabbed Sebastian's wrists and forced them to the armrests. The right ligature snapped shut, and in place of the destroyed left lengths of barbed wire circled up Sebastian's arm. Sebastian reacted far too late to avoid it. By the time he was fighting back, the barbs were in his skin.

"Fuck!" Sebastian struggled anyway, but then Ruvik grabbed the headpiece and yanked it down into place. Clamps dug into his scalp and needles stabbed him from all sides. The machines started up again, filling the chamber with a threatening buzz of electricity. Sebastian shook all over. " _Christ_ , wait. Wait!" He heaved with each panicked breath as his hair stood on end from the static. He wanted to take it back, to promise Ruvik compliance after all, but all that came out of him were gagging, helpless moans. _No, no more. No more, please._ _I can't._ _I can't._

Ruvik's weight disappeared from his lap. When he spoke, it was from the chamber's exit, and his voice was full of scorn. "Like I said: it will get easier."

"You...!" Sebastian pulled until his hands were numb. "I'll kill you!" he shouted, raw with fury and desperation. "I'll fucking kill you! I swear to God, Ruvik, I... I'll..." The chair reached its crescendo; tears spilled down his cheeks and he couldn't stop them. "Don't go! _Please_ , don't...don't fucking leave me here!"

But Ruvik was already gone, and it was starting all over again.


End file.
